Nyanga, a film made with shadow theater and handmade film, arrives at GIFF / @alefrausto @cultura_mx >>>

#Cultura.- For a long time, animated film was considered a vehicle intended only for children. However, over time, filmmakers and artists around the world have demonstrated that the versatility of this tool is capable of telling all kinds of stories to people of all ages. In the case of Mexico, animation is giving voice to a more diverse cinema.

An example of this is the short film Nyanga, by Eritrean-Mexican director Medhin Tewolde, who is making her first foray into animated film after presenting her documentary Negra in 2020. The national premiere of her most recent film will take place during the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF), to be held July 20-31, 2023.

Nyanga is one of the 60 projects that, since 2019, have received support from the Stimulus for Audiovisual Creation in Mexico and Central America for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Communities (ECAMC), granted by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine), and which has allowed the representation 31 native languages in national cinema.

The film tells the story of a man kidnapped off the coast of Africa and brought to Mexico as a slave during colonial times. Based on historical facts, the short film is a tribute to the human yearning for freedom, as well as to the life of the Afro-Mexican hero Gaspar Yanga.

«At first I thought of making a book for children, then I realized that I don’t know how to write children’s stories, so I discarded it. I thought it was a very important story, not only for Afro-descendants in Mexico but for the whole world. These stories of struggle and resistance generate worthy, less victimizing references,» says Medhin Tewolde.

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